ROBERT AND THE REGIMENT.
"MAMMA," softly called Ellen the next morning, "please come here a
moment, and see what Robert is doing."
The lady followed, wondering what would happen next.
Ellen quietly pushed open the door leading into the library. And there
sat the boy in a rocking-chair, in the centre of the room, his fingers
pressed into his ears, a large shade covered with green silk tied over
his eyes, with his book in his lap, rocking himself with all his might.
"What is orthoepy?" he was saying. "Orthoepy is—is—bother it, I thought
I knew that Orthoepy is,—is—" He stamped his foot,—"I can't remember
it; I think it's wicked for me to study grammar, it makes me so angry;
I mean to tell aunt Josephine so."
The lady and her daughter darted from the room without being seen.
Presently, she sent a servant to tell Robert she would like to see him.
"I have tried; indeed, aunty. I wouldn't go to sleep last night till
I made a resolution to begin right off. I shut Major up in the coal
cellar, so he needn't take off my attention, and—I—really I—"
"No matter now, Robert. I want you to do something for me. Part of a
regiment of soldiers are going to pass here in a few minutes, and I
want you to count them. I have a particular reason for wishing to know
how many there are. Do you think you can do it?"
"Oh, yes, aunty; 'deed I can! I know how to count right smart."
Robert's brown eyes kindled, and there was an expression of resolution
on his face seldom seen there.
"Stand in the bay window," added the lady, "and be sure you count
correctly."
"Yes, aunty. I believe I hear the music now. No, it's poor Major. Shall
I have time to let him out?"
"I think so."
Robert flew over the stairs, opened the cellar door, and not waiting to
answer Major's joyful bark, was speedily back at his place in the bay
window.
In a few moments, a company of boys running on the sidewalk,
continually looking behind them, gave intimation that the soldiers were
in sight, and presently the sound of martial music was heard.
"Must I count the band too, aunty?" cried Robert, his cheeks crimson
with excitement, and not daring to turn his eyes from the window.
"No, none but the officers and soldiers."
Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, and still the boy stood, his
attention so completely absorbed in the business of counting that he
noticed nothing that was passing in the room.
"Two, four, six, eight," he went on aloud as they marched by two and
two in regular, martial order. It was fortunate for him that they were
not marching in double quick time; indeed the regiment was passing from
New York to Washington by the Baltimore and Ohio cars, and knew that
they had abundant time to walk leisurely from one station to another.
When the last one had passed out of sight, Robert threw up his arras
with a triumphant shout.
"Just seven hundred and sixty-eight, officers and all. Oh, don't I wish
I was a soldier? Didn't they look splendidly, though?"
"You forget, Robert," said his aunt in a sad tone, "that it is not all
of a soldier's duty to march leisurely through the streets in dress
uniform to the sound of music, and with admiring spectators thronging
the windows. Don't you remember the line of ambulances after the last
battle?"
"I shall never forget that sight as long as I live," faltered Ellen.
They went so slowly along, and then one after another backed up to the
door of the great hospital. The nurses seemed real kind though and
took hold of the litters as though they truly pitied them. "Oh, mamma,
wasn't it dreadful; so many without arms and legs, and their heads
done up in towels. Don't you remember how we sat up all night tearing
bandages and scraping lint, and making beef tea and coffee for the
nurses?"
"Oh, that's only once in a great while!" suggested Robert. "I heard
some gentlemen talking about it, and they said only one in two or three
hundred were ever hurt. I mean to be a soldier when I'm a man."
"I thought you meant to be a pig-driver," said Ellen archly.
"Oh, I gave that up with short dresses!" exclaimed Robert laughing
heartily. "When I began to wear pants, I changed my mind and said I'd
be a constable!"
"A constable has to be very tall and strong," urged Ellen. "Now you
grow very fast, but it is all in breadth."
"I've resolved this long time to be a soldier."
"Your mother will never consent."
"Then I shall run away, and join the army. After that, I shall write to
her, and tell her what a splendid time I'm having, and how I like it
and then she wont care."
"That would be very wrong, Robert," remarked his aunt.
"I don't think there's much danger of his really doing it, mamma, he is
too fond of lying in bed and taking his ease, and having a good dinner,
to enlist for marching through swamps and sleeping on the ground and
eating hard tack and raw pork."
"Pshaw! That's just as much as girls know," angrily retorted Robert.
"I've been in camp before I came to Baltimore, and I know all about it."